Dr. Judith Johnson’s role in the evolution of the Lockheed Martin/UCF Academy for mathematics and Science (LMA) and its guiding philosophy has been critical to the program’s success. She came to UCF from the University of Nebraska where she received a Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Science Education in 1992. The opportunity to participate in the LMA was the deciding factor in Dr. Johnson’s decision to relocate in central Florida.

Dr. Johnson was the Associate Director of the Lockheed Martin/UCF Academy from 1992 until her death in 2002. She participated in all aspects of program instruction and administration. In addition, her teaching skills and her ability to relate to the LMA scholars were outstanding. She helped scholars to examine their beliefs about teaching and learning. She moved teachers from where they were to where they wanted to be. Dr. Johnson practiced ‘servant leadership”; she was a servant first and then became a leader. She believed in the scholars and their ability to reflect and improve. She had tremendous respect first, for the scholars as people, and second for the scholars’ knowledge and skills. In turn, scholars admired and respected her which helped to make her an extremely effective in her capacity to foster growth in her students.

Reflection was a vehicle Dr. Johnson used to force the scholars to examine new ideas and relate them to their teaching practice or lives. The culminating reflective experience for scholars is action research. Action research in the LMA is systemic inquiry in which teachers study their own practice in order to improve it. Practitioner- based research has the potential to generate genuine and sustained improvements in classroom practice and, consequently, is a critical component to the LMA program. Dr. Johnson was an authority on action research and presented her findings on this form of teacher research to national and international audiences. Dr. Johnson served to advise LMA scholars on their action research until she became ill with cancer in 2001. Even when Dr. Johnson was seriously ill, she continued to serve as a thesis advisor to many scholars.

Dr. Johnson was fond of saying that teachers teach who they are and, subsequently, her identity and values were very evident in the classes that she taught. Dr. Johnson infused critical theory, educational reform, educational change, inquiry, and components of multi-cultural education in her work with the LMA. She supported scholars in thinking critically to examine the reasons for why and how they taught and to focus on the students’ learning more than their own teaching. She taught scholars to question the status quo and to become leaders. For many scholars, Dr. Johnson was a change agent, a mentor, and a friend. Sadly, Dr. Johnson passed away in September of 2002. She is sorely missed in the Lockheed Martin Academy, but her work lives on through LMA and through the scholars whom she touched.